Darn It! My Mead Won’t Ferment!

Posted on September 2, 2019 by AIH

I seem to have a problem making mead. It starts off with an SG [specific gravity] of 1.100 and over a period of 3 days, during primary fermentation it drops to 1.060 and seems to stop. I think that the fermentation has just slowed down and rack it into a secondary fermenter and install an air lock. I rack it a month later and the SG is 1.040. Now it has been three months and the SG is 1.030. Is this normal? Why is it my mead will not ferment?

Thanks Sam
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Hello Sam,

Turning honey into alcohol can sometimes be a difficult task for a wine yeast. This is due mostly to the complexity of some of the sugars contained within the honey, but some of it is also due to the set of nutrients that the honey provides to the wine yeast. Both are issues as to why your mead will not ferment, and both need to be addressed.

Honey has simple sugars as well as complex sugars and everything in between. This is true with all fruits as well, but typically not to the degree as with honey. Simple sugars are easily metabolized by the yeast into alcohol, but complex sugars are not so easily fermented. A complex sugar is a chain of simple sugars that are bound together on a molecular level. These long chains must first be broken apart before they can be metabolized into alcohol by the wine yeast.

Enzymes are produced by the yeast during a fermentation that will help to break down the complex sugars, but often in the case of honey, it is not enough enzyme to keep the fermentation going in a timely manner.

Honey has all different lengths (complexities) of sugar chains. So what happens as the fermentation begins, the wine yeast start off by consuming the simplest sugars first — the lowest hanging fruit — so to speak. As the simple sugars are depleted the yeast move on to the next easiest sugars and so on until there is nothing left but the most complex, longest chains of sugars.

This is what has happened with your fermentation. It started off just fine as it began its way metabolizing the simplest sugars, but when the remaining sugars became nothing but the most complex it became too much of a burden for the wine yeast. The enzymes that the yeast were able to produce were not enough to keep the fermentation going at a reasonable rate. All the yeast was able to do was nibble at the remaining long chains of sugar as it slowly produced the enzymes.

So what can you do? Your only defense is to make sure your yeast stays as healthy as possible by providing it with all the nutrients it needs. This will help the yeast to more readily produce enzymes. Many mead recipes will call for nutrients at the beginning of the fermentation. The trouble is that these nutrients will have long been consumed by the time the yeast get to the difficult part of the fermentation.

At this point, I would recommend adding 1/2 teaspoon of Yeast Energizer for each gallon of mead. This should give the yeast a kick-start. If magnesium sulfate was not called for by the mead recipe, then I would recommend adding it as well at the rate of 1/4 teaspoon per 5 gallons.

Sam, in the future I would make sure that you add both of these at the beginning of the fermentation – regardless of what the recipes says. And if the fermentation starts to slow down at some point, be prepared to add a second dose of yeast energizer.

I hope this have given you some insight as to why sometimes a mead will not ferment. If you would like more information about making mead, you may want to take a look at the article, Making Wine With Honey that is listed on our website. It has some more insights to fermenting honey along with a few mead recipes.

Best Wishes,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

Does Wine Conditioner Stop A Fermentation?

Posted on August 30, 2019 by AIH

Is there a wine product that you sell that sweetens the wine in the end and also stops the fermentation process. I thought it was the wine conditioner, but I don’t see where it says it stops the fermentation process.
Thanks,
Jen
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Hello Jen,
One of the most difficult things a home winemaker can try to do is stop an active fermentation. It’s not practical, nor can it be done with any guaranteed success. This holds true for wine conditioner, as well.
There are several wine making products you can use that may inhibit or temporarily slow-down a fermentation, such a Campden tablets or sodium metabisulfite, but these wine making products will not normally bring an active fermentation to a full stop. Their primary purpose is to destroy wild molds and bacteria. Their effect on the domesticated wine yeast doing the fermenting is only minor.
The most important thing to understand about a wine making conditioner is that it should not be added to the wine must while it is still fermenting. It is a wine sweetener that should only be added once the fermentation has completed and the wine has had plenty of time to clear. If the wine conditioner is added during the fermentation or while the wine is still cloudy with yeast, all the sugars that are in the wine conditioner could potentially start a renewed fermentation and turn the sugars from the wine conditioner into alcohol.
With that being said, the best time to add wine conditioner to a wine is right before you are ready to bottle the wine – add to taste, then bottle.
Wine conditioner does have a wine stabilizer (potassium sorbate) in it that, will help to eliminate the chance of a re-fermenting occurring. It does this by inhibiting the residual yeast cells are still left in the wine from multiplying into a larger colony that can sustain a fermentation.
But again, the stabilizer in the wine conditioner will not stop a fermentation. There are no wine making products you can use that will safely do so. The wine stabilizer in the wine conditioner will only stop a fermentation from re-occurring.
Happy Wine Making,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

A Simple Guide To Metabisulfites & Wine Making

Posted on August 28, 2019 by AIH

I have a quick question that I can’t find the answer to. I’m hoping you can help me out. Which is better, campden tablets, sodium metabisulfite or potassium metabisulfite? I’ve looked in several places but don’t understand why you need all 3 to make wine.
Shaun
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Hello Shaun,
Thanks for the great question. This is an issue that perplexes many wine making hobbyist, so I’m glad you brought it up. To answer it, I have put together a simple guide to metabisulfites below.
The first thing to understand is that all three of these wine making ingredients do the same thing: Campden tablets, sodium metabisulfite and potassium metabisulfite, they all add sulfites to a solution. Whether it be wine or water the result is the same. Regardless of which of the three you use, the result is the same. Sulfites are being added to the liquid.
So what’s the difference? Honestly, not much. The main difference between sodium metabisulfite and potassium metabisulfite is that one will leave residual amounts of sodium in the wine and the other will leave some potassium.
Many home winemakers will lean towards using potassium metabisulfite instead of sodium metabisulfite in their wines as a means of avoiding more sodium intake in their diet. But in reality, this is somewhat futile.
If the normal recommended dose of sodium metabisulfite is used—1/16 teaspoon per gallon—the residual sodium being added is equivalent to one slice of pickle per case of wine. Not enough to affect the flavor and certainly not enough to affect your diet.
Potassium metabisulfite is slightly stronger than sodium metabisulfite by volume—17% stronger—but this is not enough to be taken into account if you are only making 5 or 10 gallons of wine at a time. With either we recommend the same dosage.
Now that we have cleared that up, what makes Campden tablets different from potassium and sodium metabisulfite? Again, not much. Campden tablets are nothing more than potassium metabisulfite in tablet form. The tablets are measured in a dose for one gallon of wine. You simply use one tablet per gallon.
So in the case of tablets, it’s a matter of convenience. If a home winemaker is only making a gallon or two of wine at a time, they may want to use Campden tablets instead of having to measure out a 1/16 teaspoon dose for each gallon. They are just a way to keep things simple.
As to your question as to which one is best to use, in reality, it just doesn’t matter. I say, ‘pick one and go with it’. Many home wine makers will use sodium metabisulfite for sanitizing their equipment and wine bottles and then use the potassium metabisulfite to go directly into the wine for preservation. But in reality, if you don’t want to buy both… not a big deal.
Happy Wine Making,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

I Have Apples! Now What?

Posted on August 26, 2019 by AIH

Dear E. C. Kraus
I just picked some apples from our trees and they are so sweet. I would love to try making some apple wine with them, I don’t know what to do can you help me out on this at all.
Thanks,
Midge
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Dear Midge,
All the information you need to make apple wine can be found at the following links on our website:

Apple Wine Recipe: This link has all kinds of wine recipes, including one for your apple wine that you are needing. All of the recipes list the ingredients you will need to make the wine.

7 Easy Steps To Making Wine: This link goes over the basic steps of making wine: when to put in the yeast; when to siphon; when to bottle, etc. It’s laid out in plain English and very easy to understand. These are the directions you should be following with the apple wine recipe.

Home Wine Making With Fruits: This article has some further information that you may be interested in taking a look at. It gives a little more detail as to the “in’s-and-out’s” of wine making. It’s a great overview of the entire wine making process whether you are making apple wine or blackberry wine.

Your Fruit! Necessities Box: This is a starter kit that we offer for the beginning winemaker. It has all the wine making materials you will need to get started, including the ingredients listed in your apple wine recipe. It’s an easy, straight-forward way to get started.

I hope this information helps you out. Our website has much, much more information for the first-time wine maker, lots of articles and detailed information about the products we offer. Feel free to visit our site to learn more.
Best Wishes,
Ed Kraus
—–
Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

When Do I Put My Wine Into Oak Barrels?

Posted on August 23, 2019 by AIH

My son gave me a 5 gallon oak wine barrel as a gift. I have a batch of red wine that I would like to put in the oak barrel and let it age a bit. When do I put the wine in the barrel? Do I let the wine finish up and clear with bentonite first and then put it in the barrel or should it go into the barrel now, let it age for a period of time then finish and bottle it?
Thanks,
David
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Dear David,
Thanks for the great question, and way to go son! An oak wine barrel is really one of the better wine making gifts you can receive as a home wine maker. A lot of people underestimate how valuable the effects of oak aging can be to a wine.
The most common time for a wine to be in barrels is after the fermentation has completed, and the yeast has had time to settle out. That is also when I would recommend you put your wine in the barrel. That being said, the direct answer to your question is: add the bentonite first; let the wine clear; then go to the oak wine barrel.
One thing you have do have to be concerned when aging a wine in a barrel is how long to keep the wine in the barrel. A vast majority of the wineries will barrel-age anywhere from 18 to 30 months. This is perfectly reasonable if using 50 gallons oak barrels, but when using smaller oak barrels, the length of time needs to be much less.
A 5 gallon wine barrel holds only 10% of what a 50 gallon wine barrel can hold, yet the surface contact between the wood and the wine is still about half that of a 50 gallon barrel. What this translates into is: smaller wine barrels will affect the wine much more quickly than larger wine barrels. In the case of 5 gallons versus 50, about 5 times faster.
Because of this, it is easy to over oak the wine when aging in small barrels, especially if you are used to aging in glass jugs. With glass jugs aging too long is hard to do, more forgiving, but with small barrels you can potentially ruin the wine with too much wood.
This is why I always urge anyone aging in smaller barrels to monitor their wine’s flavor progression closely. At least once a month, taste a sample so that the barrel aging effects does not become too much. This can be easily done with a wine thief.
In summary, after you have cleared out the wine yeast is when to put your wine in the barrel, and monitor your wine’s flavor closely, at least monthly. Make sure that the wine does not become to woody or overcome by the effects of the barrel.
Happy Wine Making,
Ed Kraus
—–
Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

Do Wine Kits Need More Ingredients?

Posted on August 21, 2019 by AIH

I’ve been making wine using wine kits such as KenRidge for several years. These kits seem quite complete with all the ingredients needed – but reading many of the posts on your site causes me to wonder. Should I, could I, must I supplement the ingredients provided in these wine kits with other ingredient such as Yeast Nutrients, Acids, Tannins, Potassium Sorbate, Wine Conditioner? Should I add Campden tablets between bottling?
Name: Paul
State: New Jersey
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Hello Paul,
One of the great things about using one of these wine kits is that the all of these wine making ingredients have already been taken care of for you. This has either been done directly by including the ingredient in the grape juice, or indirectly by eliminating the need for the ingredient, all together.
As an example, you mentioned acid blend. This is typically included in a wine recipe to bring the wine’s acid up to the proper level. If a wine’s acid level is too low, it will taste flat and flabby. With one of these wine kits, however, the grape juice has already been adjusted to the correct acidity level.
Not only is it been adjusted to a proper range for wine, it is adjusted to the optimum level for each specific type of wine. This is done by bench-testing a batch-sample of the juice with an actual fermentation beforehand, then test-tasting the resulting wine for balance and overall character. The optimal amount of acid is determined, then applied to the all of the grape juice. And, all of this is done before the grape juice goes through any packaging into one of the wine kits.
The same can be said about the yeast nutrient and the wine tannin. Each are already in the grape juice at a level that will result in the best possible wine for that wine kit.
Another aspect to this is the speed at which the wine progresses through the fermentation, then the clearing, and then the bottling. The wine kits on the market today are set up to get in the wine bottle so quickly, that they do not have a need for sulfites such as Campden tablets to be added along the way. It should be pointed out that most wine kits do include a packet of potassium metabisulfite. This is the same thing as Campden tablets, but they only recommend adding it if you plan on storing your wine for longer than 6 months in the bottle.
The last item I will mention is the Wine Conditioner. This is essentially a sweetener designed specifically for wine. It is something that can be added to taste before bottling, but only if you desire to change the wine kit manufacturer’s intended favor. If you decide to do so, proceed cautiously. You can always add more, but you can’t take it out.
If you would like to read more whether or not your wine kits need more ingredients, here is another blog post that continues on with this subject, Do Your Wine Juice Kits Need Adjusting? It has some additional info on this.
With that being said, don’t’ feel left out because you are not concerning yourself with all these wine making ingredients. Feel fortunate. Wine kits have come a long way toward making the process simple, and the results outstanding.
Happy Winemaking,
Ed Kraus
—–
Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

What You Should Know About Sweetening A Wine

Posted on August 19, 2019 by AIH

I have a batch of peach wine and a batch of pear wine in 5 gallon glass jugs ready to bottle. Both need to be sweetened at bottling time to bring out more of the fruit flavor. Please explain to this rookie exactly how you back sweeten a homemade wine as you bottle it. Do you add the sugar/water solutions to each bottle or do you add to the 5 gallon glass jugs, stir, and then bottle?? And, is plain sugar OK to sweeten with?
Thanks, ready to bottle in Missouri…
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Hello Missouri,
The first thing that needs to happen before sweetening your homemade wine is to make sure that it has completed its fermentation. This takes more than just a visual inspections. This needs to be verified with a wine hydrometer. The specific gravity reading on the hydrometer should read .998 or less. If it is not, then your wine is not yet ready to be back sweetened.
Essentially, the sugar needs to be added to your wine while it is still in bulk. Adding the sugar per wine bottle is not practical nor is it necessary. It is also important to note that you will also want to have the wine siphoned out of the fermenter and off the sediment before adding the sugar – a process called racking – otherwise unwanted sediment could be stirred up into your homemade wine.
Almost everyone uses plain-ole cane sugar when back sweetening their homemade wine, but what you choose to use is open for experimentation: honey, grape concentrate, corn sugar can all be experimented with to add different subtle flavors to their fruit wines. Just remember that once the sugar is in the wine it won’t be coming back out. The sweetening process is not very forgiving in this respect. For this reason you may want to do a test batch before adding the sweetener to the rest of the wine. Maybe take a gallon of the wine off and back sweeten that first.
Anytime you add a sugar to sweeten a homemade wine you will also want to add potassium sorbate to help eliminate the chance of the wine brewing again. And, anytime you bottle a wine you will want to add sodium metabisulfite to help keep the wine from turning color and/or spoiling.
When adding sugar to a homemade wine you will want to pre-dissolve the sugar first. This can easily be done by mixing half and half with water and heat it on the stove until it becomes completely clear. Be sure to stir continuously when heating so that the sugar does not burn on the bottom of the pan. Allow the sugar mixture to cool before adding to the wine.
The article, Making Sweet Wines, may be of some interest to you. It goes through all of in’s and out’s of sweetening homemade wine in more detail, so you might be worth taking a look.
Happy Wine Making,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

When Do I Add Campden Tablets To My Homemade Wine?

Posted on August 16, 2019 by AIH

Help!
I was wondering if you can straighten me out on something. I have heard that you should add campden tablets before you add the wine yeast. I should also add campden tablets after every time I rack the wine. Then add them before I bottle the wine. That seems like a lot to me.
Thanks,
Gary
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Hi Gary,
Thanks for such an interesting question.
You do need to use Campden tablets or some other form of sulfite such as sodium metabisulfite, or the wine could eventually spoil or turn to vinegar. But how much you should add is another issue all together.
If you’re making wine from fresh fruit, we recommend that you add one Campden tablet per gallon before the fermentation. This is the standard dose. If you are making wine from a packaged juice, this step is not necessary.
Be sure that you wait 24 hours before adding the wine yeast, or the Campden tablets may kill the wine yeast. Also during this 24 hour waiting period, be sure the fermenter is not sealed. Leave the fermenter open to the air. If you like, you can cover it with a very thin towel or netting to keep bugs and fallout from getting to it. The sulfur dioxide from the Campden tablets need the opportunity to dissipate into the air during this time.
We also recommend that you add another dose of Campden tablets as soon as the fermentation has completed. You should confirm with a wine hydrometer that the fermentation has actually completed before adding them.
The only other dose of Campden tablets we recommend is right before bottling. This last dose is what will keep the wine from spoiling or turning to vinegar.
The reason we recommend only adding Campden tablets at these three times is because it is possible to add too much. By sticking with these three times “too much” is not possible. These three times assumes that you will keep the fermenter topped-up and that long-term bulk aging is not in the plans — 1 months or more.
This reason for this is that while sulfites from these Campden tablets do dissipate into the air during rackings, a large percentage of the sulfites bond to the wine. As you add more doses, the bonded sulfites build up in the wine. This build up of bound sulfite does nothing to protect the wine, but if built into a high enough concentration, it can eventually affect the wine’s flavor.
Having said all this, it is possible to add more Campden tablets after rackings, but you shouldn’t do this blindly. You need to test the sulfites that are currently in the wine before adding more. This can be done with Titrets Test Vials and the Titrettor Hand Tool. Shoot for a range of 25 PPM (Parts Per Million) for red wines to 35 PPM for whites. If you do not want to go through the testing, don’t add more than what’s recommended above.
I hope this answers your question and concerns about the use of Campden tablets in your homemade wine. I wanted to point out that this recommendation applies regardless of what form of sulfite you are adding, the three main ones being: Campden tablets, sodium metabisulfite and potassium metabisulfite. If you follow each one’s directions for the dosage you will be adding the same amount of sulfites in each case.
Happy Wine Making,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

How Long Before Wine Yeast Starts Working?

Posted on August 14, 2019 by AIH

I bought your wine making starter kit and am up to the point where you add the wine yeast. I added the yeast about 12 hours ago and nothing has happened yet at all. Is this normal? The reason I ask is because I have made wine before in just a gallon milk jugs and added brewers yeast and instantly it foams. Can you please let me know…
Thank-You,
Harley
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Hello Harley,
The short answer is that you should expect to see activity of some kind within 36 hours, but usually within 24 hours. The fact that you are not seeing your wine working within 12 hours is not all that unusual. Just how long before your wine yeast starts working depends on numerous factors.
In regards to your previous batches, when making wine in a gallon glass carboy or something similar, it is expected that the fermentation will take off sooner. This is because you are using the same amount of yeast in a single gallon that you would be using in the typical five or six gallons of a wine making kit. The higher concentration of yeast cells, means your yeast will start fermenting sooner.
That’s the short answer to your question. The long answer is I don’t think there is a thing wrong with your wine must or wine yeast, but if you are still concerned I can go over some things that may put you more at ease.

The #1 reason a wine yeast fails to ferment is temperature.
The wine must is either too hot or too cold. Temperature plays a major role in how fast or slow a wine yeast starts to ferment. The temperature should be between 70 and 75°F. The further you get from this fermentation temperature, the harder it is for the wine yeast to start fermenting. If you are not sure what temperature your wine must is at, you may want to consider getting a wine thermometer.

The #2 reason a wine yeast fails is improper re-hydration.
The direction on most packets of wine yeast will tell you to re-hydrate the yeast in warm water before adding it to the wine must. The directions will specify a certain temperature for specific length of time. Normally, it’s something like 105°F. for 10 minutes. If you followed these direction, exactly, you will not have a problem whatsoever. But, if the temperature was hotter than the directions say, or if you left the wine yeast in the warm water for a longer length time than you were supposed to, you could have killed all or a significant portion of the yeast. If most of the yeast was killed it will take much longer for the fermentation to start. The fermentation may also be slow or sluggish once it does start.

In either of the above cases the solution is simple. Depending on the issue, either get the wine must to the proper temperature, or add another pack of wine yeast. Problem solved!
Just how long before your wine yeast starts working can depend on a number of different factors. The above two are by far the most common we run across, but if neither of these sound right, you may want to take a look at, “Top 10 Reasons For Fermentation Failure” that is listed on our website.
After have said all of this, it’s still only been 12 hours since you added the yeast. The most likely scenario is that it will have already started bubbling by the time you read this. While many fermentation will start before this, taking longer than 12 hours is not all that unusual.
Happy Winemaking,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

Some of Our Favorite Food and Alcohol Pairings

Posted on August 8, 2019 by AIH

We recently wrote a blog about tips for wine and cheese pairings – and that got us thinking, why stop there!? All kinds of alcohol, not just wine (but also wine), pairs well with many different food combinations. The right match-up can enhance the flavors and experience of both and it can be fun to experiment and find new combinations that work. Food and alcohol are made for each other – think about every fancy dinner, barbeque, sports game viewing, live concert etc. that you’ve ever been to or seen, how did the food and alcohol combination impact the experience? Arguably, the food and alcohol helped make the experience and the enjoyment often happens subconsciously – we thought it would be important to call attention to this and why it is happening specifically.

While we could write an entire book, because drilling down into the specifics of why certain alcohols and foods pair together is truly scientific – we wanted to call out a couple of our favorite food and alcohol pairings. Any of these your favorites too?

White Wine and Seafood
White wine and seafood is a go-to delicious food and alcohol pairing – the white wine is light-hearted and delicate enough to match the weight and substance of raw fish and light, briny shellfish. If you’re typically going with Pinot Grigio, why not try champagne the next time you have seafood?
Red Wine and Red Meat
Specifically steak, we hope everyone has gotten to enjoy (at least once) the delectable combination of a decent steak and a full-bodied red wine. The tannins from the wine help to soften the fat in the meat and further release its flavor. The enhanced flavor from the fat then helps to release more of the fruit flavor from the wine – it’s a winning combination to say the least.
Red Wine and Dark Chocolate
Heavy and heavy goes together – be sure to pair the chocolate weight with the wine weight, and in general, don’t go with a particularly dry red (like a Cabernet). Chocolate also has tannins and you should try and match like with like.
Beer and Pretty Much Any Food
Beer is great because it has a complexity of flavors and goes well with almost all foods to some degree. Like pairing wines, you should match strength with strength, but also don’t be afraid to break the rules. You’ll probably have a few poor experiences, but you could also discover your new favorite!
Japanese Lager and Sushi
Absolutely one of our favorites – there is nothing better than a crisp Sapporo, Kirin Ichiban, or Asahi to pair with a large plate of sushi after a long day at work. You don’t have to stick with Japanese beer, but the macro Japanese rice lagers have been strategically designed and brewed to achieve interesting flavors that pair well with adventurous sushi plates.
Pilsner/Lager and a Soft Pretzel
Think about the signature taste of a baseball game, need we say more?
Stouts and Desserts
Similar to red wine and chocolate, full-bodied and sweeter stouts pair well with a variety of desserts. Many stouts naturally have a chocolatey flavor so they accentuate the flavor of a chocolate dessert of any kind. Maybe try a dessert beer next time you’re looking to indulge?
Also, as a bonus tip, stop “enjoying” these food and alcohol pairings, they weren’t meant to be!
Pizza and IPAs – the intensity of the IPA will totally overpower and destroy the flavor of the pizza.
Spicy food and lagers – while a crisp lager does calm the spice in your mouth, you’d be better off enjoying an IPA that will help to enhance the spice and experience overall (looking at you hot wing and Miller Lite drinkers!).
Artichokes and anything – Just don’t do it.
Blue cheese – incredibly difficult to pair with any alcohol as it overpowers all other flavors it comes into contact with – skip the blue cheese on your next cheese board.
We hope that this quick list either confirmed, made you think, or inspired some food and alcohol pairings for your next event, evening at home, or next dining out experience. Be adventurous!
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.
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